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Journal Article

Citation

Bidet-Caulet A, Bottemanne L, Fonteneau C, Giard MH, Bertrand O. Brain Topogr. 2014; 28(3): 423-436.

Affiliation

Brain Dynamics and Cognition Team, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center; CRNL, INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR5292, University of Lyon 1, Lyon, France, aurelie.bidet-caulet@inserm.fr.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10548-014-0354-x

PMID

24531985

Abstract

Attention improves the processing of specific information while other stimuli are disregarded. A good balance between bottom-up (attentional capture by unexpected salient stimuli) and top-down (selection of relevant information) mechanisms is crucial to be both task-efficient and aware of our environment. Only few studies have explored how an isolated unexpected task-irrelevant stimulus outside the attention focus can disturb the top-down attention mechanisms necessary to the good performance of the ongoing task, and how these top-down mechanisms can modulate the bottom-up mechanisms of attentional capture triggered by an unexpected event. We recorded scalp electroencephalography in 18 young adults performing a new paradigm measuring distractibility and assessing both bottom-up and top-down attention mechanisms, at the same time. Increasing task load in top-down attention was found to reduce early processing of the distracting sound, but not bottom-up attentional capture mechanisms nor the behavioral distraction cost in reaction time. Moreover, the impact of bottom-up attentional capture by distracting sounds on target processing was revealed as a delayed latency of the N100 sensory response to target sounds mirroring increased reaction times. These results provide crucial information into how bottom-up and top-down mechanisms dynamically interact and compete in the human brain, i.e. on the precarious balance between voluntary attention and distraction.

Keywords: Driver distraction;


Language: en

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